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It’ s an accountability culture issue. It can be anything— hand hygiene, transmissionbased precautions, environmental cleaning and disinfection. The complexity of the task is irrelevant. It boils down to the fact that IP & C tasks require consistency, accountability and leadership support.
People will cut corners when the culture allows it.”
— Aaron Woodall
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and disinfection. The complexity of the task is irrelevant. It boils down to the fact that IP & C tasks require consistency, accountability and leadership support. People will cut corners when the culture allows it.”
One key point proposed by Alhumaid, et al.( 2021) is that knowledge of IP & C among healthcare personnel other than physicians and nurses was lower in comparison with physicians and nurses, despite their role in tackling HAIs being equally pivotal.“ This could be due to lower level of academic education and training about IP & C in healthcare personnel other than physicians or nurses,” the researchers say.“ The role of healthcare personnel other than physicians and nurses in hospital IP & C is usually underestimated although they themselves and their work can be a vector of infection transmission in hospitals. Healthcare workers other than physicians and nurses may be in close contact between patients, physicians, and / or nurses; high concentrations of medically vulnerable populations, combined with physical movement between treatment areas; which may facilitate HAI spread within healthcare institutions and the community. Therefore, World Health
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Organization( WHO) guidelines recommend that IPC education and training should be in place for all healthcare workers using team- and task-based strategies, including bedside and simulation training.”
The researchers continue,“ Inclusion of educational curricula and continuing refresher education programs about IP & C can be recommended for healthcare workers other than physicians and nurses to ensure a thorough knowledge and understanding of IP & C. Although educational initiatives have so far not been consistently associated with good IP & C practices, targeted materials and training can help ensure understanding among healthcare personnel and healthcare facility visitors. Since different categories of healthcare workers may have different information needs, it is recommended that IP & C training sessions be tailored to the specific target audience, such as medical staff versus cleaning services staff. Education is important to address healthcare workers’ concerns, fears, stigmas and incorrect assumptions regarding transmission or prevention of HAIs.”
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Getting Better Traction on HAI Prevention: Why So Elusive?
Experts we spoke to weighed in on why greater traction isn’ t being achieved in areas that are known to need improvement.
Woodall doesn’ t mince words about the problem.“ We as a field continuously talk about problems like they are a must,” he says.“ They really are not. The data are clear, the gaps are obvious but there’ s no progress. This is typically because IP & C is still treated as a supporting role, not a lead one. We bury preventable infections under operational noise and pretend they’ re unfortunate but inevitable. They’ re not. What we lack isn’ t evidence. It’ s urgency. Until HAIs become unacceptable instead of understandable, traction will remain a fantasy.”
“ There are a number of factors that impact whether or not we gain traction in areas like hand hygiene for example or surgical site infections( SSI) rates,” says Goss.“ Hand hygiene should be the easiest to achieve however the choice the healthcare worker makes at the very instance when it is appropriate to perform hand hygiene is their own. There isn’ t anyone who can stand by and instruct them to do it
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